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So excited to announce my upcoming tour for the TENTH book in the Emmie & Friends series, SERIOUSLY, CELIA?. I’m pretty much all over the place for the next few months. Come see me! I promise I’ll be delightful (if slightly sleep-deprived) in person.

For registration and details about the public events, go to these links:

Sunday, Sept. 27: Rainy Day Books (Kansas City, KS)

Friday, Oct. 2: Barnes & Noble (Roseville, CA)

Tuesday, Oct. 6: West Point Grey Academy (Vancouver, SC, Canada)

Saturday, Oct. 24: YO! BookFest (Philadelphia, PA)

Saturday, Nov. 7: Buckeye Book Fair (Wooster, OH)

Saturday, Nov. 14: Books By The Banks Book Festival (Cincinnati, OH)

Hope to see you! In the meantime, you can preorder SERIOUSLY, CELIA? here.

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So honored to be interviewed by the one and only E Train Talks (especially on the five year anniversary)! We do a deep dive into the series, my background, as well as the upcoming TENTH book, SERIOUSLY, CELIA? What a fun chat. You can watch the video HERE.

Celebrating 5 years of E Train Talks with Terri Libenson!  

I’m so excited to welcome New York Times bestselling author, illustrator, and award-winning cartoonist Terri Libenson to E Train Talks!  Terri is the creator of the hugely popular EMMIE & FRIENDS middle-grade series, which blends words, illustrations, and Terri’s unique graphic-novel storytelling, while exploring friendship, anxiety, bullying, and the ups and downs of middle school.  

Terri’s creative journey started long before EMMIE & FRIENDS! We also talk about her work with American Greetings, including L’Chaim, a line of humorous Jewish greeting cards, and her award-winning syndicated comic strip, THE PAJAMA DIARIES.  

And, most of all, in our Q&A, Terri takes us on a deep dive into her New York Times bestselling EMMIE & FRIENDS series, sharing stories behind many of the books and characters, her creative process, how she brings those characters to life, and the real middle-school experiences woven throughout her stories.  

And, of course, we talk about her newest book, SERIOUSLY, CELIA?, the 10th book in the EMMIE & FRIENDS series!

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Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few questions regarding the character Katie from INVISIBLE EMMIE. Before I go into it, if you haven’t yet read the book, this contains MEGA spoilers! Proceed only if you have read it or aren’t planning to read it (although I highly recommend you do 🙂 ).

Readers have asked me: where did Katie go? After the story, she simply disappears into oblivion and doesn’t reappear in any of the other books.

Actually, she DOES disappear. Quite literally.

You see, Katie doesn’t actually exist. She is entirely in Emmie’s imagination (and sketchbook). She is the ideal girl to Emmie: an alter ego (someone Emmie aspires to be), as well as an imaginary take-charge friend who guides Emmie when she is feeling upset, scared, or anxious. 

So, toward the end of the book, when Emmie begins to discover her voice and starts to make new friends, she realizes she no longer needs Katie. That’s when Katie “disappears” and is replaced by something new to to Emmie — confidence.

I hope that makes sense! It’s definitely a twist ending, and one that trips up many readers.

For a synopsis of the book (or to order it to re-read), click here!

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Coming to stores SEPTEMBER 29, 2026: SERIOUSLY, CELIA?

Announcing the next book in the Emmie & Friends series! Yes, you’re not imagining things. This edition will be out later in the year than usual (I know, boo!). After a decade, I’m giving myself a little break to work on other projects. But don’t worry, the E&F series is still going. AND this time, it’s starring the two most requested characters of 2025!

SERIOUSLY, CELIA?* is the tenth book in the New York Times bestselling Emmie & Friends series. It’s all about that Queen Mean of Lakefront Middle School, Celia, and her sometimes-reluctant sidekick, Grace. Yes, we finally get to see what makes them tick!

Synopsis:

Summer break. Second chances. MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Celia is bored. It’s the summer before eighth grade and hanging out with Grace and Lindsay is getting old. So she makes a plan to get her former besties, Jaime and Maya, back. And Celia knows just the person to help reunite them…

Grace is anxious. She loves Cee, but lately Grace is starting to feel more like Cee’s lackey than her friend. Still, without Cee’s popularity to hang on to, Grace would be a nobody—and there’s nothing worse than that.

Celia is determined to get their friend group back together by any means necessary, but Grace isn’t sure she wants to be friends with Celia anymore…even though that means the unthinkable: starting the school year (gasp) completely alone.

For ages 8-12.

*note: all these books can be read in order as written or as stand-alones

To order SERIOUSLY, CELIA? (or any other books in the series), click here.

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Recently, I was on Comics Kingdom’s “Inside the Kingdom” podcast with Alex Garcia, who is one of the BEST podcast hosts I’ve had the pleasure to speak with. Comics Kingdom runs my award-winning, now-retired syndicated comic strip, The Pajama Diaries. The strip is in reruns these days, and still very fun to read online. Alex interviews me about the strip as well as Emmie & Friends and my cartooning background. It’s a really fun, engaging interview, and I hope you’ll check it out.

You can watch the entire podcast HERE.

To read The Pajama Diaries online, click HERE.

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Enjoy this little collage of my month-long whirlwind book tour in May, 2025! (Yes, I took many, many, MANY more photos — but we’d be here all day.)

From left to right: Kayla Miller and me, at a fun joint author event in Louisville; at a school in Denver; school event in Petaluma, CA; signing 200 books (!) in Denver; me partnering with some bigtime (fabulous) Australian authors in Sydney; with THE Jeff Kinney (!); presenting at Town Hall in Sydney (!!); signing at Booktopia, Austrailia’s largest online book retailer; with one of Booktopia’s many warehouse robots (named after book characters…this one is “Daisy Jones”); touring around Sydney Harbour and the iconic Opera House; at the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which — yes — I indeed climbed (not for the faint of heart or mind). [Not shown: me melting in Tempe, AZ — but still great events there; also, my tour around Melbourne, a stunning city as well.]

Okay, one more. This trip wouldn’t be complete without a picture of the world’s cutest animal (besides Rosie). Can we say, AWWWWUH?

Wandering Wallaby (possible title of my next book)